Isle of May

So, in sad news, my friend Jeremiah leaves next Monday. =( To be fair, his wife had to head back to the States nearly a month ago, so it's probably time for him to go... But this is the problem with life in academia -- it's always a transient community. He mentioned a while back, however, that one thing he'd really hoped to do before leaving was visit the Isle of May, an island 6 miles off the Fife coast. It was something that has remained on my "to-do" list as well over the past 4 years, so I agreed to go with him and, after some shuffling of dates (and fully booked ferries) we were booked in for Monday (yesterday). Now, Monday didn't dawn, it hobbled in grim and grey. I was concerned. I checked the weather forecast: 10am-cloudy, 12pm-cloudy, 2pm-rainy, 4pm-rainy, 6pm-cloudy. That was not cool, as our ferry left at 1pm and would dump us on the island all afternoon... Adding to my perplexity, my flatmate had told me to take her really nice digital SLR camera -- which I was super excited about -- but I was not excited about worrying about it all afternoon in the rain. So I finally opted not to take it: a decision I regretted all afternoon. As you can see, when we took off on the ferry, the day had gone stunning: blue skies, warm weather -- at one point in the afternoon we were downright hot! Unbelievable in Scotland! Of course, at another point in the afternoon we were freezing with all our layers on, but that's just to be expected! Anyway, over the course of the afternoon I took well over 100 pictures and have posted far too many here. But... so it goes. The Isle of May is a major site for sea-bird breeding and study, and I'll label the pictures as needed! Otherwise, enjoy the vacation!

Jeremiah on the boat

Our destination, when we were about half-way there.

Our first glimpse of a seal, bobbing in the water.

The terns had a massive colony right where we docked. You can see one with its v-shaped tail as it lands. I'm still amazed we made it through the whole day without being pooped on!

The ruins of the 12th century monastery destroyed by Vikings then rebuilt and variously inhabited by monks for the next few centuries.

Looking along the length of the island back to the Fife coast.

A Shag and its mate in the nest. ("shag" here is slang for sex, making this an immaturely funny bird-name to us all day)

Puffins! Just hanging out. They do a lot of that. Not really sure when they actually feed their young!

A closer shot of the Shag - they shimmer green in the sunlight - quite handsome!

Looking south to Bass Rock and the Lothian coast. I could watch them for evidence as the haar was building up, but it didn't affect us on the island.

Birds, mostly Guillemots, nest the entirety of the cliff face. Apparently their eggs spin when knocked, rather than rolling, thus making them (a bit) safer on the perilous edges!

You can see evidence all along the cliffs of where the birds are most prevalent (i.e., the white places!). Below is Pilgrim's Haven, but leading to it was a sign that said "for your safety, do not go to the beach" which amused us to no end -- not a very good haven, eh?

Puffins!

Puffins! (Classic shot with all the little fish hanging out its beak.)

Jeremiah had an amazing eye for spotting the female nesting Eider Ducks - which had a propensity for nesting right by the path. The females made a perfect brown circle on their nests and no matter how close we passed, never moved a muscle.

Jeremiah majestically pronouced these... "The Cliffs...of Crap!" And, well, they were. But amazingly covered in birds! Mostly the black and white Guillemots and some grey and white sea gulls, thus they blend in quite well.

Close up of some bravely situated Guillemots.

My favorite puffin shot!

The lighthouse (now automated) builted by Robert Stevenson, uncle of Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and Kidnapped.

Another Eider Duck. One reason we were so strictly commanded to Stay On The Paths!

The lone Loch on the Island - braced in on the far side, and filled with ducks quite noisily taking baths.

A male Eider Duck.

I'd been wanting to see a Razorbill, which looks quite like the Guillemot except for the white slash on its beak, but so far had not had any luck. Jeremiah spotted this one sitting right at the top of the cliff not 5 feet away from me!

Another Shag - I like all the different greens in this photo.

Greater Sea Gull (or something like that) with Puffins flapping wildly in the air. They are not the most air-worthy birds I've ever seen. They pretty much sound (and look) like a wind-up plastic toy, flapping their wings as hard as they can!

Puffin flying. It looks like it's soaring, but I just got in a luckily timed shot.

Puffins actually burrow for nests, hence the biggest reason they don't want people traipsing across the island freely! This was pretty much the only puffin I saw near a burrow the whole day, though.

Wildly flapping puffin on the left side of the photo.

Shots from the ferry on our return: Guillemots nesting even on the little bridge thing in the cave!

Looked at from this angle, they really just looked like penguins, especially since their droppings had turned the ledges white!

The dip to the dammed-up loch, east side of the island. The streaks of white on the volcanic rock are all from the birds.

A fat grey seal and a smaller (probably younger) grey seal - only ones we saw out of the water all day!

On the return journey I might have seen the back of a whale surfacing. Our boat driver also claimed to have seen a bunch of porpoises (a pod?), but no one else saw anything... But all told? A very, very cool day! Sorry for the sheer mass of photos, I really did try to narrow down a bit! =}

Puffins rock!